[Met Performance] CID:100510



Il Trovatore
Metropolitan Opera House, Thu, December 6, 1928 Matinee





Il Trovatore (165)
Giuseppe Verdi | Salvatore Cammarano
Manrico
Giacomo Lauri-Volpi

Leonora
Rosa Ponselle

Count Di Luna
Giuseppe Danise

Azucena
Louise Homer

Ferrando
Ezio Pinza

Ines
Philine Falco

Ruiz
Giordano Paltrinieri

Gypsy
Arnold Gabor


Conductor
Vincenzo Bellezza







Review 1:

Review of Noel Strauss in the New York World

'IL TROVATORE'

A transcendent performance of "Il Trovatore" was staged at the Metropolitan yesterday afternoon. The special bill, given under the auspices of the Southern Woman's Educational Alliance, was glorified by the presence of Louise Homer in the cast. By the spell of her superb art and strikingly magnetic personality, Mme. Homer inspired her colleagues to outdo themselves. As a result, those fortunate enough to attend the matinee were rewarded with a presentation able in every way to bear comparison with those which used to grace the 39th Street boards when the August contralto was in her prime.

In speaking of Mme. Homer's prime, one refers to the days of her greatest activity. For never has her splendid voice been used with more telling artistry than in yesterday's commanding impersonation of Azucena. In fact, as time goes by, her feeling for fine distinctions of tone and subtleties of nuance has increased, while her work has lost none of its majestic scope and comprehensiveness of outline, vocally or histrionically. Her Azucena was a triumph of characterization in every phrase and gesture. If there was a thrill in the absorbed brooding of the Gypsy's first aria, that was but skillful preparation for the overwhelmingly intense narrative that followed, leading by turn to an outpouring of maternal devotion in the duet with Manrico that probed the inmost depths of human nature.

Mr. Lauri-Volpi's efforts as the Troubador were definitely worthy of the occasion. His magnificent reading of the "Di quella pira," with its astoundingly pure and resonant final high C, proved merely the crown of his series of notable contributions, which encompassed delicate lyricism or fiery utterance with equal beauty of tone. Miss Ponselle's vocalism as Leonora was as ravishing as any vouchsafed in her supremest flight, and she and Mr. Danise, the accomplished Di Luna of the afternoon, received one of the biggest ovations of the performance after their duet in the fourth act. The orchestra, under Mr. Bellezza's knowing baton, also deserved unqualified approval.



Search by season: 1928-29

Search by title: Il Trovatore,



Met careers